- The Upper House of the parliament of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland today succeeded in solving the impasse at the newly elected Lower House, where the ruling party supported by police forces had tried to hinder the election of a speaker by the opposition. The ruling UDUB party was convinced to accept the legitimacy of the speaker and deputy speakers elected by opposition MPs on 29 November.
Talking to 'Awdalnews' by telephone from the Somalilander capital, Hargeisa, Haji Abdi Waraabe, eldest member of the Uppper House, said that members of the House had managed to convince Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin and Vice President Ahmed Yasin to accept last Tuesday's election of the parliament's Speaker and his deputies.
"There are celebrations going on everywhere in the city," Mr Waraabe added, noting that the House had urged all parties to work together for the national interest of the country.
In particular the opposition, which won a majority in recent parliamentary elections, celebrated the end of the parliamentary crisis in Hargeisa today. The opening session of the Lower House on 29 November had turned into a dangerous situation as the ruling party did not accept the opposition's victory in the election of a speaker. An attempt to close the session was supported by armed police, which however stopped short of detaining MPs.
The election of the Speaker and his deputies was thrown into chaos when the chairman of the opening session, Mohammed Ali Dhaadheere, from President's ruling UDUB party, decided to postpone the election process to Saturday 3 December. The opposition MPs, however, continued with the election process with a majority of 48 members out of the total 82 house members.
On Tuesday, Faisal Ali Waraabe of the opposition Chairman of the Justice and Welfare Party (UCID), told 'Awdalnews Network' that the speaker of the new lower house and his deputies were elected by 47 members, affirming that this was way above the required quorum of 42 members.
Commenting on the decision of Mohammed Ali Dheere, the opening session's chairman, to postpone the election of the house speaker to Saturday, Mr Faisal said that Mohammed Dheere's authority was limited only to chair the opening session and supervise the election of the house speaker and his deputies.
With today's endorsement of Abdirahman Irro, from UCID, as the Speaker and Abdul Aziz Mohammed Samale and Baashe Mohammed Farah, from Kulmiye, as the Speaker Deputies, the opposition parties will have the upper hand in the Lower House. UCID and Kulmiye are Somaliland's leading opposition parties and won more seats than President Riyale's UBUD party in the Hargeisa parlaiment.
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